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Largest dedicated Wind Lidar Production Centre in Europe established, with global outreach

7 Jul 2017

ZephIR Lidar, wind lidar manufacturer, has confirmed that the UK Wind Lidar Production Centre will officially open by the end of 2017, in response to the increasing demand for more accurate wind measurements in the development, construction and operation of wind farms worldwide.

Inside the Wind Lidar Production Facility – ZephIR Lidar

The Centre is complete with electronics and optical assembly clean rooms for producing, testing and servicing laser-based lidar units. The redeveloped site near Ledbury also features new research and development studios and is part of a wider complex that includes the first Remote Sensing Test Site in the UK at Pershore.

ZephIR Lidar, a UK based company, delivers award winning, market leading wind-sensing devices – lidars. ZephIR Lidar has pioneered the commercial application of lidar technology in the wind industry, within the growing renewable energy sector, where measurements of wind characteristics are the cornerstone of wind farm development, operation and optimisation.

Since releasing the first commercial wind lidar nearly 15 years ago, ZephIR’s rugged and reliable wind measurement systems have been used in 80 countries worldwide. The Centre will cater for existing ZephIR models, future products and creates a step change in manufacturing capacity – the Centre positions the company for its next stage of growth. ZephIR Lidar has further invested heavily in its UK based supply chain, which is also expected to contribute to the UK economy through new job creation.

“The creation of the ‘UK Lidar Production Centre’ is a pivotal moment for ZephIR Lidar as a company. It has materialised as a direct reaction to our technology’s broad acceptance within the wind industry,” commented Ian Locker, ZephIR Lidar’s Managing Director. “We are proud to be a UK Company, operating at a truly global level, exporting our technology to over 80 countries and now with the largest most advanced lidar production centre in Europe, if not in the world. Our increased production capacity now allows us to scale alongside the wind industry as it too continues to scale. We shall continue to lead this exciting field of technology for remote wind measurements and look forward to the formal opening of this new centre later this year.”

“Creating our Wind Lidar Production Centre has really been an exciting project,” commented Ewan Abbott, Operations Director at ZephIR Lidar. “It has been very rewarding to realise our ambitions for the site, which has been our home for almost ten years. Our thanks go to the site contractors who have made this possible and to our team for maintaining production standards and capacity during the move to the new Centre. It has certainly been worth the wait!”